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Daily Business Report — Jan. 17, 2013

Regents Park Financial Center Sells for $28.95 Million

Regents Park Financial Center

In its second major commercial real estate acquisition in two months, a joint venture of BCL Inc. of San Diego and Fargo Investments LP has purchased Regents Park Financial Center, a Class A office building in the University Towne Centre area of San Diego, for $28.95 million. Located at 4180 La Jolla Village Drive, Regents Park Financial Center totals 95,811 square feet in five stories. With the purchase, BCL Inc. has acquired $130 million in real estate in San Diego since December 2011, bringing its portfolio of office and industrial space to 1.4 million square feet. BCL’s purchase followed weeks after its acquisition of One Pacific Heights in Sorrento Mesa. Currently, Regents Park is 93 percent leased to tenants including TEK Systems, which renewed its commitment for 9,677 square feet for five years in a $1.4 million lease. Other tenants include the law firm of Lavine, Lofgren, Morris and Engelberg, which occupies nearly 14,000 square feet.

El Cajon Residential Property Sells for $1.2 Million

An 11-unit, gated residential project at 288 Orlando St. in El Cajon has been sold for $1.2 million to Patrick J. Weisenberger. The seller was OEC Property LLC. Built in 1978, the property 10 two-bedroom, one-bath units and one three-bedroom, two-bath unit. Colliers International represented the seller. Siemienowski & Associates represented the buyer.

Part of West Broadway to Closefor Work on North Embarcadero

A portion of West Broadway in Downtown San Diego will be temporarily closed to vehicular traffic beginning Jan. 23 until this summer while the Port of San Diego continues a beautification and public access project for the North Embarcadero. The impacted area includes all West Broadway vehicular lanes between Pacific Highway and North Harbor Drive. The closure will be in effect 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pedestrians will be able to access West Broadway during the road closure. The closure is necessary for contractors working on the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan Phase I project to relocate and install new utilities, adjust grades and install paving for the new roadway and walkway surfaces, and landscaping installation. The $28 million North Embarcadero Visionary Plan Phase I is a joint project among the Port of San Diego, the city of San Diego and Civic San Diego. It is to be completed in April 2014.

City of San Diego to Open Tijuana Office in February

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s plan to open an office south of the border has been known for some time, but he offered first details in his state of the city address Tuesday night, KPBS reports. San Diego’s border affairs office will open Feb. 1 in one of Tijuana’s swankiest high-rises. The mayor said his staff will work with business leaders on both sides of the border to “reformulate our economic development efforts” to put a greater emphasis on attracting international business. “We not only need to think of ourselves as a binational community, but we need to market that community to international investors seeking the unique advantages of locating in a binational region,” he said. Tijuana has long had an office in San Diego. But the reverse has not been true. Filner’s move has leaders on both sides hopeful for more cooperation to fix problems intrinsic to the border, like regional planning and environmental concerns, and ones that hamper cross-border economic activity, like the reluctance of Americans to visit Tijuana, and border wait times that make getting back into San Diego an hours-long ordeal.

Stadium Security Deals Held Up Over Living Wage

City News Service — Another extension of an interim deal for security at Qualcomm Stadium was approved Wednesday by the City Council’s Budget Committee, because city officials and bidders cannot agree how to interpret the city’s living wage ordinance. Council members have able unable to award a contract for stadium security for more than a year now, because of a series of controversies involving Orange County-based Staff Pro and San Diego-based Elite Show Services. Councilman Mark Kersey called it “the contracting process from hell.” The latest issue is whether Staff Pro will commit to paying its employees what the city determines to be a living wage in San Diego, which is roughly $16 to $23 per hour for various security jobs. Deputy City Attorney Thomas Zeleny told committee members that Staff Pro has signed pledges to follow the ordinance, but since the law carries exemptions, it doesn’t mean the firm is committed to actually paying its employees that kind of money. The issue is scheduled to come before the full City Council next month.

Meagan Garland Joins Brown Law Group

Meagan E. Garland has joined Brown Law Group as a new associate. Garland served more than six years as a litigation associate at Baker & McKenzie in San Diego and New York. Her litigation practice focused on representing corporations and individuals in state and federal courts (criminal and civil) in a variety of litigation matters. In 2005, Garland interned with the United Nations, Office of the Prosecutor, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. Other affiliations have included serving as the founder and co-chair of Diverse Women’s Task Force of the Lawyer’s Club of San Diego; and as mentoring coordinator and board members of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association. Garland is the recipient of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association Award for Distinguished Service (2007) and the Pro Bono Service Award, Baker & McKenzie, San Diego (2006, 2007 and 2011).

Amy Leung Joins Cavignac & Associates

Amy Leung

Amy Leung has been appointed as a risk control adviser for Cavignac & Associates, a San Diego risk management and insurance brokerage firm. Bringing to the firm more than 17 years of experience in the insurance industry, Leung will be responsible for providing safety and risk control consulting services to the firm’s clients. Most recently, Leung served as a safety administrator for the city of Escondido, where she coordinated and implemented loss control and safety programs. For 17 years prior to that, she was employed by the San Diego District Office of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, where she worked her way up from a claims adjuster, policy services representative, auditor and eventually to a loss control consultant.

ARS Selects General Manager of HVAC

Art Hagopian has been named general manager of the San Diego heating and air conditioning business of ARS, a brand of American Residential Services. Hagopian is responsible for overseeing and developing the management team, increasing market presence through sales and marketing methods and mentoring service team members. Hagopian began his career selling to the hospitality and healthcare industries with Ecolab, global provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services. Since then, he has held multiple leadership positions, most recently as a general manager for UniFirst Corp.

History Center Exhibitionto Showcase San Diego’s Brewing History

San Diego Brewing Co.

San Diego History Center (SDHC) is opening an interactive exhibition showcasing the rise and fall of San Diego’s early brewing history and the recent resurgence that has become one of the region’s most successful and beloved exports: craft beer. The exhibition, titled “Bottled & Kegged: San Diego’s Craft Brew Culture,” opens April 5 and runs through Jan. 20, 2014. Visitors will discover what a craft beer is, brewing’s history in the San Diego region before, during and after Prohibition; the brewing process, and why San Diego County has become a nationwide leader in craft beer production and innovation. Bottled & Kegged will include numerous hands-on, interactive components including a 500-gallon brew house, a hop smelling-and-touching station, a guess-the-beer-glass game and a brew history timeline.

San Diego History Center has several craft beer-related events in 2013 including:

• Taste of San Diego Craft Brews tasting event, Feb. 16.

• History Happy Hours: the center will host monthly happy hours in the Bottled & Kegged exhibit space featuring a new brewery every month, beginning in June.

• Makers of San Diego History Annual Gala honoring San Diego’s craft brewing industry at the Town & Country Resort on April 27.

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We Want Your Opinions on San Diego’s Big Issues
In the coming months, Probosky Research (one of California’s leading opinion research firms) will continue its partnership with SD METRO to survey San Diego residents about topics of interest to our readers. We’d like to throw open the door for suggestions for topics. What do you want to know? What do you think you know, but aren’t sure? What are you certain you know, but want to prove it beyond doubt? Ideally, we’d like to see questions that have to do with public policy.
Some areas may include Mayor Filner’s first 100 days job performance, should the city be responsible for economic growth and the creation of new jobs, how important are infrastructure improvements to our daily lives (streets and bridges, etc.), how important is water independence, how satisfied are residents with public transit or how do city residents value Balboa Park and other open spaces? Do you believe the City Council should revive the Plaza de Panama plan for Balboa Park?
You can email Probolsky Research directly with your ideas: info@probolskyresearch.com